She Could Remember
by Lai Jun Chen
Summary: Kagome and Kikyo truly were such different women, from two such different worlds. This is a hypthothetical fic illustrating events that might have shaped their lives and perspectives that could have shaped their futures. Not exactly InuKik or InuKag.
1. Past and Future

I have decided to add onto the first chapter, which was originally just supposed to be a one-shot . I've just had notes some rough drafts sitting around for a very long time. I don't really write Inuyasha fics anymore, so I guess we'll see how it turned out after all this revision and expansion.**

* * *

******

She Could Remember

**Part I: Past and Future**

_"Please remember, I am not the past. I am not your past."_

**Kagome**

She could remember that first day of school. She was so excited to make new friends. To learn. Maybe someday she could be a teacher- or a doctor! If she did well enough she could go to the States to study…

**Kikyo**

She remembered the day she was told she had the reishi of a potentially strong priestess, that she had to start her training. She would soon learn that this would be her whole life.

**Kagome**

She remembered the funeral. The incense, the ceremony, the prayers. His face was only contained in pictures on the wall. The loss, the sadness, was faded; but she could remember the funeral.

**Kikyo**

She remembered her mother, just barely. The now faceless woman had died giving birth to her sister. She remembered the funeral, the funeral pyre, burying the ashes. She could still remember the smell of the smoke from the funeral pyre.

**Kagome**

She remembered the day she met Eri, Yuka, and Ayumi. The four of them were the best of friends right away. She remembered thinking they'd be best friends forever. That she could never have better friends.

**Kikyo**

She remembered the other children looked at her with a mix of awe and fear. Her little sister, Kaede, who started her training as a priestess at the same age she had, was her only friend. She remembered how the others of her village kept their distance.

**Kagome**

She could remember the first time her friends tried to set her up on a date with Hojo. She had been mortified. She couldn't remember how many times they'd tried to set her up with him since then, or how many times he'd made that same request of her.

**Kikyo**

She couldn't remember any males being interested in her, until Inuyasha. Odd that her brief moment of vulnerability, when she'd tripped on the dock, was what it took for them to realize how much they cared for each other. She could easily remember the pain she felt when she thought he had betrayed her.

**Kagome**

She remembered someone commenting once about how it seemed that absolutely everyone loved her, that it was amazing. Kagome was astonished. She just couldn't believe that such a thing could be true.

**Kikyo**

She remembered the love, tempered by respect and fear, which the people held for her. She understood that it wasn't love for her, but love for her ability, her protection, love only for what she could give.

**Kagome**

She remembered when she fell into the well. How she was labeled 'reincarnation,' a lesser version of Kikyo. That just wasn't true.

**Kikyo**

She remembered when she was brought back to life and she was thought of as 'Kikyo' again. She knew Inuyasha thought she was the same as the last time she lived. That Kagome and the last Kikyo were the same. That just wasn't true.


	2. The Jewel

All three chapters are based around Kikyo and Kagome, but the second chapter focuses more on their interaction with the Shikon no Tama.

The quote below is from _The Temple of the Winds_, written by Terry Goodkind.

**

* * *

**

**She Could Remember**

**Part Two: The Jewel**

"_To the right person, the person who is truly born to it, duty is a form of love, through which all is possible. Duty is not always a denial of things, but an expansion of them to others. Duty is not always a chore, but is best carried out with love."_

**Kikyo**

She could remember the first time she laid eyes on the Shikon no Tama. She knew immediately that it would be the death of her, in more ways than one.

**Kagome**

She could remember the first time she laid eyes on the Shikon not Tama. She couldn't have imagined that she would be given a new life, in more ways than one.

**Kikyo**

She could remember every creature that had ever attacked her for the Jewel. She couldn't ever remember being frightened or shocked, but… she remembered always being so very _weary_.

**Kagome**

She could remember every creature that had attacked her for the Jewel Shards. She _also _remembered every test and assignment she'd missed since she began travelling to the Feudal Era. She couldn't remember ever being so weary.

**Kikyo**

She couldn't remember exactly when that part of her heart had died, when her pity and empathy began to warp into something dark and ugly. As the years of guarding the Shikon no Tama wore on she found that she could feel nothing but disdain for those driven by hatred and greed.

**Kagome**

She could vividly remember the last time her heart had ached with such sadness, but that had been so long ago. In the space of a few months she had been attacked, kidnapped, robbed, or all of the above on several occasions. She'd even had her soul stolen once. But these things only inspired deeper sorrow and pity. Pity for these poor souls driven by nothing more than hatred and greed.

**Kikyo**

She could remember only the _burden _of duty. She could recall constantly being told that she had been 'born to duty.' She was chained to duty, a _slave _to duty. Duty had become naught but an endless chore that she could find no love in. She was to be a protector and healer 'til death.

**Kagome**

She couldn't remember ever feeling much more than a vague, easily unnoticed idea of 'duty.' She had never before possessed such a strong sense of 'duty' and thus had never before given her such a sense of _fulfillment_. She had been bound to duty indefinitely, but she didn't mind. Why were people always suggesting she abandon her duty? Never before had she felt such love and _joy _in her purpose as a protector and healer, until death.

**Kikyo**

She could remember the ever present urge, the base desire to be rid of the Jewel, to simply _throw it away_. She liked to think- to _imagine _that she could then find peace.

**Kagome**

She couldn't forget the ever present fear of losing the Shikon Shards, or the instances of _terror _that came over her whenever she felt that the Shards were in danger or were stolen from her. She knew she would not find peace until every last fragment of the Shikon no Tama was again in her possession.

* * *

Let me know what you think of the new chapter. I do like this chapter, but there are little parts I'm unsure about. Your feedback is very much appreciated!


	3. We Three

This last chapter concentrates on Kikyo and Kagome's interaction with Inuyasha and their thoughts on eachother. I haven't decided if I like this chapter or not. Let me know what you think, one way or another.

I do not own Inuyasha.

**

* * *

**

She Could Remember

**Part Three: We Three**

_"Love recognizes no boundaries. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope." Maya Angelou_

**Kikyo**

Inuyasha was brash, arrogant, and rude, but also so much more. Kikyo accepted these things and loved him… if only he were human. Then they could live together, die together, be together. _Forever_

**Kagome**

Inuyasha was brash, arrogant, and rude, but also so much more. Kagome accepted these things and loved him. She didn't understand why people couldn't get past his demon heritage and see the good in him that she could perceive so easily.

**Kikyo**

She could easily remember the first time she had witnessed Inuyasha's table manners. She'd flinched in disgust, but only politely turned her head.

**Kagome**

She could easily remember the first time she had witnessed Inuyasha's table manners. She'd flinched in disgust and immediately set to work correcting his atrocious eating habits.

**Kikyo**

She could still recall the first time she held a bow. First, before she was allowed to use her bow or even _touch _the arrows, her mentor had quietly explained all the properties of a bow and its attendant arrows.

**Kagome**

She could barely recall the first time she held a bow. Inuyasha had snatched one up along with a quiver of arrows and shoved them at her, gruffly telling her to 'start shooting.'

**Kikyo**

She remembered every time Inuyasha had left her to return to her 'reincarnation.' Her hatred deepened each time.

**Kagome**

She remembered every time Inuyasha had left her and their companions to see her 'previous incarnation.' Her confusion, her conflicting emotions- anger warring against sadness and understanding- only deepened.

**Kikyo**

She couldn't remember until the end, her second end, ever feeling anything but disgust and hatred for her reincarnation, _Higurashi Kagome_. Kikyo blamed both her and Inuyasha for her every moment of anguish she experienced in both of her lives.

**Kagome**

She couldn't remember ever hating Kikyo. At the end, her second end, regardless of what the dead woman had taken from her, all she could feel was pity. Pity and resentment, but never hatred. There was no point in assigning blame or holding grudges, after all.

**Kikyo**

She knew that she had failed as a true preistess the moment she gave into despair. She resented that Kagome only ever overcame her uncertainty and doubt. If fear and hatred were darkness, then she was the embodiment of it. She loathed that Kagome only ever shone _brighter_, driving back every unseen fear with her optimism and determination. She absolutely despised the ever bright Kagome who was a true priestess at heart, a girl-child who seemed to be made of nothing but _light_. She hated that this _child _made her so very jealous.

**Kagome**

She never felt that she was a good enough priestess, but she continued to try her best because that was all she could really do. She wished she had the talent of Kikyo because maybe then she could be more useful, more efficient, more… _there_. She so admired Kikyo for her power and the commitment to her calling that she had displayed when she'd been truly alive. Every now and again she found herself feeling jealous of the dead woman.

_"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." Martin Luther King Jr._

* * *

The end! Thank you to everyone who read this short fic. I haven't read, watched or written Inuyahsa in years- never finished the series either- so I'm not sure how this turned out or how accurate an interpretation of the characters this is. So, tell me how I did!


End file.
